Help People Make Better Decisions with Your Content

Last week, Wil Reynolds, CEO SEER Interactive, shared how what we learned in the sandbox applies to search. In our second conversation we get more granular and take a pragmatic look at writing content to help people become more educated and make better decisions about a topic.

The light bulb usually goes off because it is after we ask those questions that we look at the tools Google has available.

The first example Wil uses is for an International MBA - he typed the words "international MBA" and got looking at the keywords that people were searching for: salary, jobs, rankings. Then he looked at their site to see how often they were talking about salary, jobs, and rankings. The answer was zero instances.

It's a simple example, yet it shows why that site is not getting quality links -- what people want and what the site is serving them are two completely different things.

SEO tips for integrating social media

Publishing content is about spreading. Nobody invests time to build a Website for no one to come. If you spend time building things, you need to spend time making sure that they connect with users. That's where social starts taking things to a new place.

For example, you can see what questions people ask on Twitter and use your content to help people find answers. Either you point them to content you have written on your Website, or to other resources. Create alerts and help make those connections.

When people ask about building thought leadership, in this Internet age you build it as you help people find answers by lending your expertise to find out, free of cost. That's how you do it.

This post is a preview of the session Wil Reynolds will facilitate at the Conversation Agent Workshop, April 19, 2012.